October 24, 2006

Adventures In Amplitude Modulation - Part 29

Okay, I'm back again with some shortwave reception. I made a number of bandscan recordings when I was in the Catskills around the beginning of this month and that's where this entry was recorded. And as usual, the audio (and the discussion of it) follows the jump.

While I had hoped to duplicate some of the luck I had upstate while perusing the 31 meter band last June (discussed here in thesetwo posts), that wasn't possible this time around. One of the main reasons shortwave radio is both intriguing and frustrating is that propagation varies so damn much, depending on the weather of our solar system. One day or night a station (or a smorgasbord of stations) will be heard at a certain time, and on another date at the same time you've got radio silence, something else, or just RF noise. And on that weekend, two fairly dependable bands, the 31 and 41 meter band, were clear of many of the stations I hoped to find there in the evening.

The 49 meter band (the most dependable evening shortwave band) was chock full of broadcasts that weekend. However, this piece of spectrum typically offers fewer surprises, and lots of U.S. Christian garbage along the way. However, as far as shortwave listening the real action I found that weekend was on the 25 meter band during the late afternoon. Right when it's gotten dark across the sea, and much of what I found was coming from over there. And as Ralph mentioned in his guest post, most of the overseas broadcasting you hear on the 25 meter band at these hours isn't intended to be heard in the US. Programming meant to be heard in here (and there is sadly less of this all the time) typically starts up a little later.

This band is interesting because it swings both ways. Depending on atmospheric conditions the 25 meter band can provide better propagation during either the day or night. 25 meters roughly covers the 500kHz on each side of 12000kHz (or 12MHz). And as a rule of thumb, the bands with frequencies above 25 meters (which have lower meter numbers) are better for daytime broadcasting and listening (22, 19, 15 and 13 meter bands). The bands below 25 meters (with higher meter numbers) are generally used at night (31, 41, 49, 60, 75 and 90 meter bands). So, if you turn on a shortwave radio and wonder where all the stations are, try the bands that fit the time of day. In general, I've always had the best luck with the bands between 5000 and 15000kHz (60 to 19 meters).

Okay, enough of the geeky stuff. It just always seems like a good idea to give a little background for people who might one day dip their toes into the world of shortwave listening. I imagine many readers either will never turn on a shortwave readers and then again some of you know far more about these things than I do.

Speaking of that, tracking the stations in this particular listening expedition
has more troublesome than usual. I have very few frequencies and times
committed to memory and my logs are quite sloppy and temporary (kept
primarily just to put these posts together). I've been depending on the
internet as a source to lookup frequencies, and the best online
database out there (hfradio.org) has been down this last weekend as
I've worked on this post. While it isn't perfect, I've found that
the lookup page at hfradio seems to be correct at least 85% of the time. No other
site I've found provides the service of simply entering a frequency to generate
a list of broadcasters and times. Another site, Prime Time Shortwave
has very up to date lists of English language broadcasts, but other
than that discovering the origin of a foreign language broadcast on
shortwave can get much more difficult. Sure, the information is
probably out there, but there's no organization to all that data that is simple or logical to navigate. It can involve quite an elaborated sequence
of advanced Google searches., and occasionally still get almost nowhere. In other words, just trying identify some
of the broadcasts featured in this post took me the better part of an
hour (or more) to ID.

I know, I need to get those big guidebooks that come out every year
(Passport to World Band Radio" and "The World Radio TV Handbook.") I've
been thinking about buying these for a while, but they're not cheap
and you really should buy a new one every year. Up until now, I haven't felt
the need. Now I'm probably going to end up investing in these things. I still hope
hfradio comes back online soon.

Now and then I've put out a request for other DXers to contribute their dial journeys to this series (both shortwave
or nighttime AM). So far, only reader Ralph has come through with a
viable scan (again, which you can read and listen to here). I discussed some
of the kind of stuff I'm looking for in this post if you're interested.
While Ralph has offered to do it again some time (and I hope he does,
it was a nice post) I'm hoping others can offer up their radio
adventures here as well. If you think you'd be interested, you can
email me here.

That said, I did get a bit of a donation of another sort along these
lines. Reader Dan in Kentucky and his friends have been messing with
shortwave radios in a more loose and sonic fashion, including making
music using radios as instruments. There is a tradition of using radio
receivers to create music and audio art for quite a while, and analog
shortwave radios make such a variety of sounds, tones and noises that a
deft manipulator can turn one into an offbeat analog synth with a bit
of tweaking and fooling. Dan favors the musical wonders of the
Panasonic RF-2200.

Anyway, instead of sending me the audio to scratch my head over, Dan
went ahead and created a four CD set (as MP3s with JPG covers) which
you can download and savor on this webpage. Not very much of these
recordings is actually music (there are a couple "songs" by his band "The Belgian Waffles"), and it's obvious by listening that he's as
interested in the noises and anomalies of shortwave reception as he is
the actual programming content. But I'm sure some readers of this
series will find some entertainment (or what does Fabio call it, irritainment?) value in these recordings. Thanks
Dan.

Okay, enough blather. Let's get to the gooey cream center, the audio
itself. As a city guy, I love those inexpensive efficiency cabins you
find in the mountains of Pennsylvania and upstate New York. It's like
having your own cottage in the woods for a couple days. And that's the
kind of place I was staying up in the Catskills, where I had turned the
little kitchen table into a radio listening post. In this instance I
stuck with the Degen 1103 (and as usual just using the built-in whip
antenna). I did an extended co-scan with the Degen and the Tecsun
BCL-2000 which was interesting. While the BCL is fun to use and much of
the reception was comparable to the Degen, I did come across some
strong and annoying images not heard on the 1103.

This scan starts out just after 4 in the afternoon, which is 2000 UTC shortwave time. Have a listen...

In English. A feature on breast feeding. I guess in some countries
feeding a child from a naked breast in public is considered normal. What are we anyway? MAMMALS? Bad
keyboard bed under content.

And then the (occasionally) musical sound of turning stations digitally at 1kHz intervals as I come to...

11640 - China Radio International

It's English, poor reception from a relay in Mali. Something
about Argentina, and money from China I think. A bit of hissy static
here with a very quiet signal.

11680 - BBC World Service

Broadcasting in Arabic I believe. Again sounding quite distant.

11695 - (unknown)

Here is a loud fairly clear read of a station broadcasting in what
sounds like Farsi or Arabic to me, but it could be another language
from that region. It sounds like serious stuff. Perhaps he's
discussing the Koran. This is a good solid read from a station that is
certainly coming from a distance. I would like to know what this is.

11720 - (unknown jazz program)

Again, I've spent way too long trying to figure this one out. It's a
jazz program, and it sounds like it's part of a big national broadcast
network. VOA? France? Russia? BBC? Israel? After looking through a
couple dozen webpages I can't match this frequency to this time online.
At least not easily. It is coming in quite well, however. I believe the
announcer is speaking French. And it also sounds like he has an America
accent. The host appears to be featuring the work of Ben Allison.

11735 - Radio Tanzania Zanzibar

Also covering the 25 meter band in the afternoon in his scan, Ralph
talked about his station at length in his post as well. Apparently it's
a regular stop for him when listening to shortwave around the house. They carry
an eclectic stew of regional music. This song is sweet and
cosmic. It's my bet this was a big hit somewhere. I let it play for a
while here before moving the dial.

11740 - The Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & Radio Farda

Again, this parallels with Ralph's reception from just an hour or two
earlier in the day, with the world headquarters of Islam battling US
propaganda to Iran on the same frequency. I believe Saudi Arabia is
broadcasting the Koran. What you get is just a messy mix of the two
stations.

11760 - Radio Habana Cuba

This is as good as reception gets from Cuba. It a LOUD clear signal,
probably intended for Europe. We get the news with US ex-pat Ed Newman.
The guy's got a great voice. He sounds more professional and personable
than half the people I've heard on Air America.

And that's the thing too. Radio Habana Cuba, once a steadfast defender
of everything Communist and Soviet is now more like a viable
"alternative" news source for us in the states. It used to be that you
listened to Cuban shortwave to hear the other side during the cold war,
but now we have such a criminal and corrupt government here in the
states they seem to often just be just telling it like it is, instead of
pumping out purple anti-US propaganda like in the old days.

For example, the lead story in this review of the week's news is a report
on a minor armada the US has sent to the Persian Gulf to cause trouble. And
maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but this was the first time I
heard this story (which I've heard repeatedly since that time). And at
the time of this writing, our forces are in the Gulf are all ready to start
something. Maybe a big October boom boom surprise.

Sounds like Portuguese to me. But I've been wrong before. If I'm right, it's a good catch from Northern Brazil.

That's it for this week. I would like to humbly request corrections and
assistance in identifying a couple of these broadcasts. More than
usual, I'm left putting this post out in a slightly less than
informed fashion. While always appreciated the hfradio site, I didn't realize how much I depended on it to write these posts.So, I'll I'd like to amend this entry when I become a little smarter.
And if you can help me out I'll gladly credit you for doing so.

And finally I have a question unrelated to shortwave, but relevant to this series. For my own edification, I'm wondering if any of you DXers out there know anything about these two Latin music stations that have popped on my AM dial (here in the NE of the US) at
840kHz and 890kHz? The music on one at 840 is much more contemporary and
schmaltzy, but the station at 890 plays some wonderful old stuff and more
authentic Latin jazz. They both dominate the clear channel stations at
those frequencies now and then, and 890 comes in rather strong in the city, despite the power of WCBS at 880. If I have heard them before a few months ago,
they didn't have the kind of power they do now. I always assume these
Spanish DX intrusions into the American AM dial are coming from Cuba, but
I am truly curious if anybody has more information on either of them.

All that said, I do appreciate your readership. I'll probably remain
with shortwave reception for the next post or two. Any feedback,
comments, and especially corrections will be greatly appreciated,
either left below or through the WFMU email machine. And my other posts on shortwave and AM DXing can be found here.

11720 is almost certainly VOA, which broadcasts in French to Africa from Morocco on that frequency from 2000-2030 on weekdays and 2000-2100 on weekends. They have a jazz and blues program in French on weekends that may or may not be broadcast at that hour.

If hfradio.org is down, you might want to check Eike Bierwirth's site, which contains an extensive list of broadcasts. It doesn't have the nice searchable interface that hfradio.org has, but the information Eike gathers is solid. I also sometimes find it useful to check the NASWA loggings database to see what other people are hearing. It's not comprehensive the way a WRTH or Passport would be, but it can be a useful source in pointing you in the right direction. (Disclaimer: I run the NASWA site.)

That's great that you got Zanzibar. I've heard the song in question a number of times on the station. Wish I could speak Swahili so I could understand the announcements and know what the song titles and artists are, but I suppose it's enough to be able to hear the music on a regular basis. I should be recording these broadcasts so I have something to listen to when the transmitter inevitably breaks down and they leave shortwave, if only for a while. They really are hands down one of my favorite stations in the world.

Now that we're pretty much past thunderstorm season and winter conditions on the bands are approaching, I hope to put something together for you covering 60 or 90 meters. 90 is more likely, as there's more English language broadcasts there. I need to do some work on my antennas first, though.

Professor, another great post thank you! Passport To Worldband Radio is a terrific resource for clearing up 95% of those nagging questions the average listener has regarding the source of a broadcast and, most importantly for the DXer seeking QSL's, the location of the transmitter. The backmatter of that publication, and its listing of Station Addresses from around the world, including obscure broadcasters, Pirates, and clandestine operators, is essential for the would-be DXer in understanding in many cases to what precisely he or she is listening. It is arranged chronologically by frequency, and broken down hour by hour showing what entity is broadcasting, at what time their broadcast typically begins and ends, what language they are transmitting in, and the origin of the signal. This methodology is not fail- safe in identifying those seemingly elusive signals however. The success of any such scheme depends upon the currency of the information therein. Having been a casual consumer of this product for quite some time I can attest to its overall accuracy, precision, and informational shelflife. But this scheme should be used inferentially. It is no substitute for hearing a clear station I.D. when in pursuit of a QSL. It is often possible to identify the broadcast you're listening to by the language(s) employed. It also occurs to me that one could take advantage of the generous contact information (e-mail addresses and fax numbers) given in the Addresses section to well and truly nail down a signal mystery. I buy this publication year after year and it has become the source of great entertainment for me. I also believe Professor that Passport would save you many fruitless searches on the internet. Keep posting Professor. I am sure I speak for many when I say we LOVE YOUR BLOG.

Allow me to add that Passport meets your requirement for a reference which lists broadcasts and times through the simple expedient of knowing the frequency. Another neat thing is that it gives transmitter power. Looking up your presumed reception of Radio Tanzania Zanzibar on 11735 kHz (listed in Passport's Blue Pages as Voice Of Tanzania but elsewhere referred to as the Voice Of Tanzania-Zanzibar) we see that this transmission is for the domestic market, that it weighs in at 50 kW, that the broadcast begins at UTC 15:00 and ends at UTC 21:00, and that Voice Of Tanzania broadcasts in English for a brief time starting at UTC 18:00. Further, there is a notation which tells us that this is a new or changed schedule from the previous edition of Passport. Other data which may be indicated are variable frequency, earliest heard, irregular operation, season, days if not daily, target zone, network, mode if not AM, alternative frequency, and latest heard. Just prior to the Blue Pages you will find an extensive glossary of shortwave related terminology. If you have a good understanding of propagation (I do not) and an adequate antenna, you can attempt targeted DXing using the Blue Pages as a guide. And then if you think you've got something, you can access the Addresses Plus section and write away for a QSL. After many years, I have just begun to do this myself. What might be the allure of such a geeky pursuit one might ask? I would say one need only see the photo of the smashing QSL offered by Radio Nederland for reception of their Madagascar Relay Station, sent in by the lucky recipient to Popular Communications (October 2006). This QSL is a work of art and I am going to work this winter at getting one of my own. At this point, I can count the QSL's I have received on less than five fingers, but one was for receiving CKZN's (CBC) 300 W signal from St. John's, Newfoundland, from approximately 1350 miles. Hardly a flea-powered signal from Oceania and nothing a seasoned DXer would mention let alone brag about, but satisfying nonetheless especially on a Sangean portable off a short length of antenna wire indoors. The preface to the Blue Pages also provides the novice with some good advice before he begins his hunt for QSL cards. I believe I just read on Mr. John Plimmer's blog that he has received his thousandth QSL. That should place him squarely in the middle of Guinness, or at least a couple of pints of Guinness squarely in the middle of Mr. Plimmer! The new Passport is just out Professor; I think you would have a lot of fun with it.

Are you sure 11695 isn't Italian? I can't tell and it definitely sounds kind of like Arabic or Farsi at first but then it settles into sounding really Italian to me. Maybe it's that gahspetti from earlier.